Re: [Printing-architecture] RFC: Pantum M7300FDW and similar

Solomon Peachy <[email protected]> Mon, 11 Dec 2023 09:39:58 -0500
Newsgroups	dev.linux.lists.printing-architecture
Message-ID	<[email protected]>
On Sun, Dec 10, 2023 at 05:38:04PM -0500, Michael Sweet wrote:
> What you might be running into is that AirPrint from iOS/iPadOS often 
> exercises a different part of the IPP stack than CUPS 1.x/2.x.

Heh, that reminds me of the quip "The United States and England are two 
countries sparated by a common language".

(But whatever the cause the net result is the same...)

> First, we really don't know whether the customer has the most recent 
> version of the firmware.  Second, we don't know whether the printer 
> works with any of those other OS's.  Finally, this particular issue 
> might not manifest as a "problem" (one that prevents printing) unless 
> you tried to print something that doesn't match the media in the 
> printer...

Pantum doesn't list any firmware updates for public download but that 
doesn't mean anything if the printers expect to have its own always-on 
connection to the internet.

Given that all of "those other OS's" come are provided a traditional 
native driver, and that Pantum emphasizes use of their own app for the 
mobile platforms, I think it's safe to say that yes, the printer is 
fully functional _unless_ you're using a spec-compliant driverless 
IPP-based path.

(Okay, min-rant time)

Of my printer fleet, only a handful support driverless IPP. None of 
them reliably work [1] with Linux/CUPS, iOS, or MacOS.

I have a Brother HL-L2370DW and several different Canon Selpy models.  
The latter have received firmware updates that fixed some of the IPP 
problems, but Canon still heavily pushes their own app that _doesn't_ 
use IPP. The fully-up-to-date Brother works well with Linux/CUPS 
(driverless) clients, But MacOS/iOS clients remain a crapshoot.  
Ironically, I found that [re-]exporting a traditional CUPS queue that talks 
to the printer via PCL6-over-JetDirect is the most reliable way to print 
from iOS clients. (Happy printing, happy wife. Happy wife, happy life!)

The promise/potential of driverless IPP keeps clashing with the 
experience of dealing with real-world printers/manufacturers, I find 
this both _incredibly_ frustrating and... par for the course. 

I guess if I have a point in all of this, it's that printer makers (in 
the mass market/consumer space, at least) are incentivized to 
discourage/deemphasize driverless printing, and instead funnel them into 
using a native driver or printing app, as this lets them datamine their 
users and provide opportunities to advertise/monetize/upsell/whatever. 

ANYway.  Back to my usual duct tape and bailing wire.

[1] As in "I can expect something to be waiting on the printer when I 
    get there" 

 - Solomon
-- 
Solomon Peachy			      pizza at shaftnet dot org (email&xmpp)
                                      @pizza:shaftnet dot org   (matrix)
Dowling Park, FL                      speachy (libera.chat)
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